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Easter is an exciting time of year for family, friends and more importantly — chocolate! Joking aside, this time of year can be tricky for those who are trying to stay healthy, with the delicious smells of hot cross buns and other tempting Easter goodies everywhere you look. But just because there’s constant reminders or chocolate, sweets and other sugary treats doesn’t mean you can’t stay strong and restrain yourself from overindulging! Everyone says the secret to success is being prepared, so here’s some tips to help you (and your family) have a healthier Easter this year.
Tip 1) Switch chocolate with presents.
Even though the tradition is to gift and eat chocolate for Easter we don’t have to stick to this! If you have little ones (or adults that are children at heart) you can do an Easter egg hunt using refillable plastic Easter eggs, filling them with little toys or gifts they’d enjoy. That being said, even doing just half chocolate eggs half present eggs will help reduce your chocolate consumption.
Tip 2) Choose hollow eggs.
Hollow eggs will contain less sugar than ones filled with even more chocolate or caramel, making them slightly healthier.
Tip 3) Do non-chocolate related Easter activities.
One fun Easter themed activity the whole family can enjoy is painting and decorating eggs.
Remember to hollow them out first so that you can keep them as decorations for next Easter.
Tip 4) Bake your own Easter treats.
If you’re going to follow tip 3 and decorate eggs, you could use the egg whites and yolk to bake your very own Easter sweet treats.
Baking them yourself will give you more control over the sugar and fat content. This means you can create healthier versions of Easter classics, such as low-sugar carrot cake.
Tip 5) Plan ahead how much chocolate you intend on eating.
When going shopping, it’s a good idea to make a shopping list ahead of time, listing what Easter eggs you intend on buying and how many. This will help you limit the amount of chocolate you buy and not buy more than you need.
On Easter day, you could also make sure you only get a small amount of chocolate out, putting the rest away out of sight. This will help you not overindulge and make it easier to keep track of the amount of chocolate you’re eating.
Tip 6) Choose 70% or more dark chocolate over milk or white.
Dark chocolate contains less milk and sugar than milk chocolate (as well as more cocoa), making it healthier. That being said, dark chocolate isn’t a health food and should still be eaten in moderation. There have been studies that suggest chocolate can help keep the heart’s blood vessels stay healthy — but take that with a grain of salt. According to the British Heart Foundation, these kinds of studies haven’t taken into account the participants other eating habits or their risk factors for heart and circulatory diseases, meaning they don’t have conclusive enough results for dark chocolate to be recommended for any health benefits.
It’s important for our health to have a well-balanced diet, but it’s also okay to treat ourselves now and again — especially at special holidays like Easter. We hope these tips will help you have a fun Easter with a good amount of treats without going overboard.
